As written by Tobore Jerome
The Supreme Court in a landmark judgement on Thursday July 11, 2014, granted financial autonomy to local government administration in Nigeria.
This judgement has continued to elicit reactions from various stakeholders, pundits and political leaders across the country, while some hail the ruling as a victory for democracy, some others have questioned the ruling by describing it as a way for the federal government to meddle into local government affairs.
The Supreme Court judgement ruled that “Demands of justice require a progressive interpretation of the law. It is the position of this court that the federation can pay LGA allocations to the LGAs directly or pay them through the states.
“In this case, since paying them through states has not worked, justice of this case demands that LGA allocations from the federation account should henceforth be paid directly to the LGAs.”
The apex went further to rule that “A democratically elected local government is sacrosanct and non-negotiable.” Thereby bringing the issue of caretaker committee chairmen to rest.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA
Local governments were created by law as the third tier of government in Nigeria, with the aim of bringing government closer to the grassroots.
Local government authorities were created mainly to deal with matters of local concern, e.g., markets, roads, motor parks, etc. The essence of local government creation is to involve local participation in the affairs of the country and to bring them into the realms of politics at the grassroots.
Local governments were created so that those at the grassroots will be part of the government. It was also created to provide employment and job opportunities are provided at the local level. It provides opportunities for the local people to participate in the politics of their country. Creation of local governments provides the avenue for even development of all parts of the country. The interests of the local people differ and the creation of local governments is seen as one way to cater for these interests, that is local government was made to articulate and aggregate local interests and maintain peace within its locality.
The functions of local government in Nigeria includes; Health centres such as maternity centres and dispensaries are provided at the grassroots. Provisions of boreholes and wells are also constructed for the people. To make bye-laws for the maintenance of law and order within its jurisdiction. Provide and maintain centres like amusement parks for recreation purposes. They are also involved in the naming of streets and roads and numbering of houses. Building and renovations of markets, as well as provision of local security for the people of the local government.
Local governments generates funds from various sources, some of which includes receiving monthly statutory allocation of money from the federation account. Another source of revenue is the special grants they receive from both the central and state governments. However, in most cases, the grants are for specific projects. Local governments also generate funds through the imposition of levies on the people. The levy may be for a special project meant to improve the welfare of the people. Revenue is equally generated through the collection of rates on the radios and televisions, market shops, motor parks, etc. Local governments also get some percent of the state internally generated revenue.
IMPACT OF THE JUDGEMENT ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
Originally local governments in Nigeria share a joint account with state governments where the monthly allocation from the federation account is being paid into before such funds are transferred to local governments by state governments to run their administration.
Over the years this joint account has been abused by state governments, whereby actual money meant for local governments does not get to them completely and in most cases as at when due.
But this ruling by the apex court has brought a lifeline to local governments administration in Nigeria because when the allocation from the federation account goes straight to local governments, it will then mean that local governments can now have direct access to their funds so as to carry out their original functions while they were created.
The impact of the local governments will therefore be felt by the people at the grassroots, as the people can now hold local government chairmen accountable to justify the allocation that is being accrued to them from the federation account. Local government chairmen can no longer have the excuse of saying that they don’t get enough money because state governments are diverting their funds, that bottleneck has been eliminated by the Supreme Court.
Another milestone or impact of the Supreme Court ruling is that it is only democratically elected local governments officials that will get their monthly allocation from the federation account. This means that states that run local governments will caretaker committee chairmen will not get their monthly allocations.
This is one aspect of the ruling that many have applauded because many state governments has refuse to conduct elections and they have been appointing caretaker committee for years, these state governments only conduct local government elections when they like and in most cases those elections are marred by selection because the state governors handpick these chairmen and with the help of the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), all the governors candidates are elected into office as chairmen, vice chairmen and councilors.
The Implication of this judgement by the Supreme Court is that all state governments will therefore have no choice than to conduct local government elections as at when due, because failure to do so means that the local governments in that state will not get its statutory monthly allocation from the federation account if they are run by caretaker committee chairmen.
This is a landmark victory for local government administration, as State governors will no longer wake up and dissolve democratically elected chairmen and set up caretaker committees or fail to conduct local government elections as at when due. That is before the expiration of the three year term of a local government chairman, the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) will conduct elections just like the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conduct presidential and governorship elections before the expiration of a president or governor term in office.
CHALLENGES OF THE SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT
One major challenges that has been identified with the much celebrated Supreme Court ruling is that, as long as the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) which many stakeholders have questioned its true independence still conducts local government elections, many state governments will still control local government administration because virtually all local government chairmen in Nigeria are selected by the state governors.
This implies that state governors will still control the local governments from behind the scene if I may put it that way. State governors can still bend local government chairmen to do their bidding because of their election process through SIEC which many have argued that it is selection and not election.
However, to curtail the issue of the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), political pundits and stakeholders have called for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take over the conduct of local government elections, so as to eradicate the syndrome of the state ruling party or the governors anointed candidates winning all the council seats as it is seen across all states since 1999 till date.
But some other persons have also criticized the move of calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct local government elections, saying that it will give the federal government an avenue to control the local governments and thereby set local governments to be at loggerhead with state governors. that this may hinder development due to frequent clashes that may continue to occur.
Also, there is the fact that we are in an era of our democratic struggle whereby we are clamouring for restructuring that more power should be devolved to the federating units (states) and that it will be counter productive for the federal government to meddle into the affairs or conduct of local government elections.
Meanwhile, A bill for the establishment of the National Independent Local Government Electoral Commission, NILGEC, has scaled first reading in the Senate.
The body will be saddled with the responsibility of conducting elections for the 774 local governments in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
To achieve this, the Constitution will need to be amended.
The bill, “Local Government Independent Electoral Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2024 (SB. 531)” was sponsored by Chairman, Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa (APC, Niger East).
The proposed NILGEC shall consist of a Chairperson and six commissioners, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate,
The chairperson and commissioners shall serve for a term of five years, renewable once.
According to the bill, the NILGEC shall operate independently, free from external influence and interference and the Commission shall have its budget, approved by the National Assembly, to ensure financial independence.
CONCLUSION
The Supreme Court judgement no doubt has brought a new vigour to the local government administration, as many state governors has been compelled to start conducting local government elections in their various states.
For instance, Adamawa and Delta State are the first and second states to conduct local government elections since the Supreme Court ruling.
Similarly, some state governors like Rivers State, Kogi State have all gone ahead to constitute their State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) and have fixed dates for their local government elections.
Also, some stakeholders have argued that local government elections will now be more competitive and expensive because of the financial autonomy that has been granted them by the apex court.
In view of this, an analysis by the Nigerian Observer has projected that leading political parties in Nigeria, especially the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are set to earn at least N10 billion from aspirants who will be vying for different posts at the third tier of government in the forthcoming elections.
It is estimated that the two leading political parties in the country will generate the revenue from the sale of expression of interest forms to aspirants across the 475 local government areas where local council elections will be held between August 2024 and February 2025. These include local government areas with democratically elected officials but whose tenures will be ending this year.
The estimates further showed that at least an additional N1 billion will be injected in all the affected local government areas in the forms of printing of posters, announcements in radios and other forms of publicity.
This is as a result of the rush of some state governments that has been affected by the Supreme Court judgement to conduct local government elections and have democratically elected council officials so as to avoid allocation to the local governments in their states from being withheld by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
